


Lost Relic

by TheAceApples



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen, Non-Graphic Violence, Unfortunate Implications, specifically why a necromancer might have an all-female cast of minions and keep one in his bedroom, wash is only mentioned tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 08:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10553596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAceApples/pseuds/TheAceApples
Summary: The aftermath of a quest for a hammer and two groups of very interesting people.(Originally written for the "Freelancers" square of the 2017 RvB Bingo Wars.)Edited: 8/18/2017





	

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, aren't I so clever for naming the fic after the "quest" that they're on.

“I told you to duck,” North said yet again, his voice just as pragmatic as the last two times he’d said it. He received no reply as they all began to examine the throne room in earnest. A moment later he added, “I don’t get why you’re so mad—it’s barely even a graze.”

Carolina did her best to breathe the way Wash had shown her back at the Fort, but it did little to block out York’s exasperated shout of “Of _course_ I’m mad! You _shot_ me!” or the ensuing squabble. She could recite the key points of each man’s argument by rote at that point, she’d heard similar enough ones since joining the Dawnguard.

She let their bickering fade into the background as she cast her eyes around the icy throne room, searching for their prize. Her gaze skittered across the rapidly-cooling body of the necromancer who’d taken up residence in the barrow, as well the ghastly remains of his… _experiments_.

“North,” she said sharply, cutting through the increasingly loud voices of both men. “Scout down that hall to the left, make sure there aren’t any draugr or more of these… _specters_ lurking around.”

The archer nodded easily and headed off while Carolina turned toward their resident thief. “York, search this room for the hammer while I check out the one through that door,” she ordered, gaze flickering over to the madman who had ruled over Yngvild since being run out of Dawnstar, if the journals in her pack were to be believed. “And search the body while you’re at it. We don’t want anything dangerous that he might have been carrying to fall into the wrong hands.”

“Your wish is my command,” York said with his usual cheer and headed over to rifle through the pockets of the dead Altmer’s voluminous robes.

Satisfied, she moved up the stairs and past the throne, scooping up a soul gem and an obscure-looking book of magic that Wash might find useful as she went. The priest might _really_ hear one of the Nine in his head, or he might be as much of a madman as the Altmer, but he was on their side and seemed reasonably harmless, so she saw no harm in bringing him a new toy.

The iron door behind the throne lead to a bedchamber, or a room that had been repurposed as such, as evidenced by the fur-strewn bed and—

Carolina blanched.

There was another specter lighting up the room with its otherworldly blue glow. Like the one in the throne room, it was a girl. And she was reclining on the bed.

With a deep breath, Carolina drew Dawnbreaker from its sheath and crept forward, but was quickly noticed. The spectral young woman drew a dagger, but a slice to the stomach and a thrust to the heart made quick work of her; like her sister in servitude, her form dispersed and coalesced into a puddle on the stone floor.

Carolina spared a moment of silence for whoever the poor girl had been in life before searching the room. She found a few useful potions on a shelf, a few precious gems and a fat pouch of septims in a chest, a magic staff that Wash might also enjoy, and an unusual red gem in a golden case; much to her dismay, however, she found no warhammer carved with magical sigils. After casting another glance around the chamber, she turned and reentered the throne room, hoping that York had more luck.

When she stepped back out into the open, Carolina was surprised to see that their comrades had finished clearing the rest of Yngvild and joined them. York, casually peeking into a large urn by the back wall, was speaking with the Companion leader—North’s very own sister—while Butch looked over his scimitar blade for nicks and Maine leaned against a stone pillar, buffing his wolf-shaped gauntlets.

Carolina nodded to the men, and was met with a pleasant smile and an assessing look respectively, before making her way over to her own second-in-command. “I take it you found the hammer,” Carolina called as she strode across the cold stone floors. York shrugged and nodded, so she turned to South. “Did you and the others have any trouble clearing out the rest of the barrow?”

South snorted. “ _Please_ ,” she replied with a feral grin, hefting up her ghostly-green mace. “It was easy as a sweet roll. Just a few draugr and those shades. That what you’re here for?”

“Yes, it is. The Dawnguard’s lost Rune Hammer,” Carolina said, glancing at the warhammer in question, now holstered on York’s back. Then, “Where’s Connie?”

“I sent her to catch up with my brother,” South said, jerking her chin in the direction Carolina had sent North earlier. The movement drew Carolina’s to the golden-bronze circlet holding back her hair. With its glowing blue stones and the aura of power it radiated, the crown was surely worth a fortune; the one time she’d asked North why his sister didn’t sell it and retire to a keep-sized manor, however, he’d laughed so hard he’d cried and remarked that with all the trouble it had been to procure the damn thing, she had _better_ not.

He refused to say more on the subject and Carolina didn’t feel it was worth it to pry. She wanted to hear that story at some point, though—she had a feeling it would be interesting.

A moment of easy chatting later, footsteps echoed through the icy fortress and they all turned to see two brown-clad figures jogging up the incline. “Uh, boss?” North called, sounded notably unnerved. “You’re going to want to see this.”

“Found something worse than a necromancer?” York joked, twirling a bright green jewel between his fingers, but they all followed the archer and mage through the glacial passageway without hesitation.

The thief, of course, began complaining immediately—both about the graze North had given him before as well as the frigid temperatures—but seeing as the armor he’d chosen from the fort had neither pauldrons nor sleeves, he didn’t gain much sympathy from the others and merely earned a cuff to the back of the head from Maine.

They bypassed the window and came to a stunned halt at the threshold of the room at the end of the hall. No less than half a dozen bodies—all young women of various races, all in various states of undress—lay scattered around the room. Nobody spoke for a long moment.

“Alright,” Carolina croaked, blinking rapidly and trying to regain her composure. She’d seen a lot since joining the Guard, and even more back in the Great War, but nothing quite like the that grisly scene. “We obviously can’t just leave them like this.”

Various noises of assent met her statement, and without speaking, they all began to carefully gather the bodies and place them in a row against the wall. That done, Carolina looked at the twins for what to do next; the only Nords between the two groups, she didn’t want to disrespect any burial rites they may have. Brother and sister glanced at each other and spoke a few solemn words over the bodies before North stepped back and South, the steel scales of her armor glinting in the low light, slowly brought up both hands and set the bodies alight with a muttered spell.

After that depressing scene, the two groups filed down the last corridor and up the spiral staircase, much more subdued than they’d first been upon arrival. Seeing the lengths to which some mages would go in order to further their own mad goals had that effect, Carolina mused. If pressed, she could remember her father and what _he’d_ done in his grief when they’d lost her mother at the start of the Great War.

She managed a half-hearted smile at York’s victorious crowing when it turned out that past the iron door at the top of the wooden stairs was a lever connected to a secret door hidden in the rock. North grudgingly handed over a modest pouch of septims to the tune of his sister’s mocking as they all headed for the barrow’s exit, each of them either avoiding the sight of the ghostly remains or defiantly looking at every single one they passed.

Everyone dealt with death in their own way, particularly violent death, and Carolina knew not to judge Connie for her twitching hands or Butch for his hardened stare.

Stepping back out into the late-morning light brought flurries of snow, bone-chilling winds, and even more complaining from York. With the tacit agreement to stick together at least until Dawnstar, both groups hiked back down to where North had carved a path of solid ice in the ocean water between Yngvild’s host island and the mainland. The second hike was almost worse as the winds picked up and the snowbanks gained in height, but eventually they crested a hill and saw the almost-pathetically welcome sight of Dawnstar.

Much to the menfolk’s vocal appreciation, both Companions and Dawnguard headed as one for the Windpeak Inn. Carolina because knew she wouldn’t hear the end of it if they had to brave the carriage-ride back to less glacial pastures without first defrosting, and South because Connie had business with the court wizard over at White Hall.

With their latest adventure over and done with, they all settled down in front of the fire with food and drink and began to socialize in earnest. Nursing her own cup of mead, Carolina observed how nicely the two groups seemed to get along, and toasted North’s suggestion to ask his sister for assistance.

Perhaps they could work together again in the future…

**Author's Note:**

> You know, it's ridiculous how much effort I put into who has what armor and what weapons and uses which magic (if any) and is which race considering how little I actually used any of it.
> 
> Anyway! I hope to eventually create an actual 'verse with Companion!Freelancers and Dawnguard!Freelancers--I even have a fair amount of backstory worked out--but for now this is just a little one-shot.


End file.
